Building healthcare software - e-Referral Service
A non-technical guide to building software with the e-Referral Service FHIR API.
This guide is a work in progress
To tell us what you think, contact us.
Overview
This guide explains how to build software for the e-Referral Service within the NHS in England.
It is a non-technical guide, aimed at people building healthcare software, including:
- product owners
- architects
- business analysts
- delivery managers
- software engineers
It covers the following topics:
- guidance for specific use cases
- the software delivery process
- getting started
This guide is part of our series of domain-specific guides on building healthcare software, specifically for referrals and bookings. For more business context, see our introduction to healthcare technology.
You can also find out how to plan and prepare for your integration with the NHS e-Referral Service.
Guidance for specific use cases
This guide describes the most common use cases and how to meet your business needs with an integrated solution.
Use these guides to confirm your specific use case, before starting development. If your use case is not included, contact [email protected].
| Party | Use cases | Channel | Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referrer (sender) | Service discovery, referral, booking | User interface | e-RS includes a point-of-care application for referrers - for details, see Referrers. |
| Referrer (sender) | Service discovery, referral, booking | API | |
| Provider (receiver) | Service discovery, referral, booking | User interface | e-RS includes a point-of-care application for providers - for details, see Providers. |
| Provider (receiver) | Referral | API | |
| Provider (receiver) | Booking | API | e-Referral Service - HL7 V3 API |
| Patient | Booking | User interface |
e-RS includes a patient-facing application for appointment booking - for details, see Book an appointment using the NHS e-Referral Service. |
The software delivery process
How you deliver your software is up to you. But there are some important things you need to plan in when building software for the NHS in England, such as clinical safety, security and information governance.
For more details, read our introduction to healthcare technology.
Getting started
To get started with building your software and using our API services and standards, see getting started.
Last edited: 17 May 2024 10:02 am